Being a first-generation student has had a huge impact on my educational life. My dad did have the opportunity to go and study but instead, he sacrificed it to come to the United States to give his future children a better life. My parents have shown an eminence amount of support for what I want to do in my life and they were very supportive of the fact that I wanted to go to college to study engineering and computer science. Being a first-generation student comes with its setbacks and hills of challenges. Threw out all these hills we are going threw and are coming ahead of us my parents always stayed supportive of what I wanted to do and what felt right to do. Seeing how my dad came here with nothing and now we live a comfortable style of life has inspired me to keep pushing even threw tough times. If he was able to come here with nothing and still was able to succeed. What is stopping me? If he was able to do it then I can do it too. growing up with little money in my young ages made me have a different view of money and opportunities around me. I'm doing everything within my power to take any opportunity I can get to save money. Instead of going straight to university after high school like all my friends. I decided to go to community college instead. I have taken every opportunity around me as well as soon as I turned 18 I got a credit card and started investing and started to save money in a high-yield savings account. Even with all this and community college, I will still need to work over 30 + hours a week to be able to graduate debt-free from now to when I transfer three years from now. In my free time, I try to apply for as many scholarships as possible and also find other ways to make money. My mentality is a great part of why I think I can graduate debt-free. Every day I work is more money to graduate debt yes it is hard to be in STEM and working a lot but I much rather go threw this than graduate with huge amounts of debt and struggle to pay them off. Although being first gen has its struggles it has a huge positive impact on me and my family. Knowing I will be the first college graduate and also possibly the roots of wealth in my family when I land a successful job. Although I might not enjoy the big houses and cool cars. I want to be the roots of the tree where it all started and be the same as my dad. Hard-working for his future children and to have everything he didn't have the opportunity to have back in his home country.

Being bilingual has had a huge impact on my life. My parents came to the U.S. right after getting married. They came here with nothing and wanted to give their future kids a better life and greater opportunities. I'm currently studying and majoring in Computer Science at a community college called the College of Lake County. Over time I learned to speak Spanish inside of my household and around my family since it was the most used language around me. As a kid, my dad would point at objects and tell me what they were called and how to pronounce them in Spanish. This helped expand my vocabulary over time. before going to school my dad would buy English books to learn some English himself. He will then take what he learned and show me and teach me as well. He knew before I went to school I would need some basic understanding of English to be able to understand. This would help me a lot for once I did go into pre-k. School is the main resource where I learned how to speak and understand English over time. One challenge I experience in being bilingual is having some speech issues. In school, they noticed I didn't speak English that well and they put me in a special class to help with my English side of speaking. I was in these classes for a long time. I mainly had problems with my sh's and S's and had problems pronouncing back-to-back words like "She said" This made me feel like an odd one out in most of my friend groups because I would be the only one being taken out of class to take these special classes to help me out. Over time my English and Spanish have improved a lot and being bilingual has opened a lot of doors and opportunities as well. Knowing two languages has also built my social life and been able to make more friends and help people who don't understand English as well as help translate for them and help them out when needed. This has impacted a lot of people around me by helping them and also teaching them how to understand English more and be more fluent in it. Being bilingual is such a great power to have and own under your belt. not only do you expand your social life with who you can talk to but it also opens up doors to impacting other people's life and helping them out. Being bilingual will also help me in my field of study as well and I will be able to learn a lot faster. I see studying computer science as learning a new language. Just like how when you learn to play a new instrument you need to learn to read the notes and I see that as learning a new language. Studying computer science is just like that. You need to learn the language of the computer the only challenge it comes with is in this language you can not make any spelling or punctuation mistakes and you also have to be very specific as well.

Mental health is a critical area of importance in my life. Especially during the intense periods following college finals. During these times it can be very stressful and I must ensure that my mental health stays stable during these times. Over time, I have discovered that maintaining a healthy mental state significantly enhances my ability to manage academic demands effectively. When my mental health is stable I am better equipped to return home from college and engage in productivity study sessions. This stability also allows me to retain the information from these study sessions better and remain more focused and engaged in the lectures. The impact of mental health on academic performance is often underestimated and not looked at as an issue by many people. However, it is a critical factor that can either facilitate or impede a student's success. It's essential to be mindful of not only your mental well-being but also the people who are inside your class. Seeing changes in your peer's behaviors such as persistent sadness or academic decline can be a huge indicator of an underlying mental health issue within them. Throughout my high school journey, I have witnessed the profound effects of mental health struggles on my friends. I have seen how these issues can develop over time and impact my friends in significant ways. Some of my friends have been able to overcome the mountain with mental health issues. They did this with huge amounts of time dedicated to their mental health and reaching out to people to get the help they needed. Alternatively, I also have friends who continue to struggle despite their best efforts to overcome it. This highlights the ongoing battle many face with mental health issues. Seeing the contrast between those who have managed to recover and those who continued to struggle has impacted me as a person. It is disheartening to observe the change in my friends. Most of these friends went from being vibrant and energetic individuals to having low energy and having their heads down during class every day. These huge changes often start with minor issues that gradually escalate and weigh on their shoulders over time. This leads to a significant emotional and psychological strain on them as a person. In response to these observations, I have made it one of my priorities to engage more with the people around me. Especially individuals who may not be as social or engaged in the class discussions. I believe that by talking to individuals who may not be as social or engaged in class discussions I am offering them some support to them or at least someone that is there in that class they can talk to. I've seen something as simple as being available to listen and provide companionship can have a profound impact on someone's well-being. Not everyone may be open to such support. The act of reaching out and offering empathy can make a significant difference. By dedicating myself to fostering a supportive and empathetic environment I aim to contribute positivity around me. This will have a positive impact on my peers' days and their academic success and other factors that can come with having a better strong mental health and mindset.

I have always strived to make a great positive impact on people and the community around me. Over time helping my community out and serving them I have learned a lot about people and learned a lot of valuable skills. Additionally what pushes me to help people out is knowing you might be the turning point of preventing people from giving up or you are just the little bit of hope to them to push them to pursue something they have always wanted to do or get something finished. These small actions can make a huge lasting positive impact on someone. Your one action can also set off a domino effect. That single person you help might see someone else needing just that push of motivation and they will step up and help that person because they remembered how they needed just a slight bit of encouragement to achieve what they wanted to do. Doing this has led me to have better communication skills and these skills have helped me impact a lot more lives than I could have imagined. Another skill that has greatly impacted me and other people as well is my organization and planning skills. Over time when I have tried motivating people to become their best and finish any overdue task they have to do and stay on top of them they end up giving up or not trying at all. I've seen the cause of this is because people see a workload as one huge task. Over time I have shown people how to approach a workload and schedule on doing it over time or a day. This has raised the success rate of people finishing the tasks. I've persuaded a lot of people to work on themselves. In a book called Atomic Habits, there is a statement saying it does not take a lot to improve exponentially over a year. It states that all it takes is to become just one percent better or understand something one percent more than the last day. Although it might only seem like one percent is nothing over time this compounds to a lot. If a single dollar increases in value by just one percent over a year it will be worth $37.78. That's a 3,678% increase over just a year. I always tell them this because it lifts a weight off their shoulders when they are trying to learn something new. Many people start a new hobby and give up because people always compare their first hours to someone having many hours of experience in a hobby. Instead, to make sure they are the best of themselves I told them to just focus on improving just one percent per day. This has raised success rates of people succeeding and learning a new skill or hobby. Seeing these people that I have helped succeed in achieving the goals they have always wanted to achieve is the reason that I enjoy helping others and giving them that slight push they need to accomplish them. It always feels good knowing you helped someone out who might have greatly needed it.

As the first of my family to earn a college degree. This achievement represents a significant milestone for both myself and my family. My parents at a young age made tremendous sacrifices at a young age. Giving up their education and family to provide my siblings and me with a better future in the United States. I am deeply motivated to excel in my studies and overcoming any challenges no matter how easy or hard it will be to overcome. I know all these challenges will be worth it when I celebrate this great milestone and accomplishment with my family at graduation. My studies and career in the future are centered on obtaining a degree in computer science. I have always been interested in this field since the first initial exposure I had when I was a kid to technology in school. Despite not having access to a computer at home. I was captivated by working with them in my future career. I have found technology so fascinating and how it works. I also found it very interesting as a kid how we humans came up with this using stuff around the earth. In addition to my academic goals. I also decided to personal growth. As someone who has always been inverted and found it hard to talk to other people. Over time I have also recognized the importance of stepping outside of your comfort circle. College presents people with a lot of opportunities and I want to make sure to take advantage of all of them. They are also great ways to make meaningful connections with other people in the college. This is why I'm also pursuing getting out of my comfort circle in college. One of my long-term goal objectives is to graduate debt-free. Achieving this goal alleviates financial stress and enables me to focus entirely on my career pursuits and getting hired at a job I enjoy and not have to worry about how much I make. I do want to aim for a high-paying job in the tech industry which will not only fulfill my childhood dream but also allow me to contribute to my sister’s education. By doing so I hope to ease the financial burden on my family and support them in avoiding the same challenges I am currently navigating threw myself. To achieve these goals I have started investing in the stock market and have also opened a high-yield savings account to generate money passively while focusing on school. I meticulously track my investments and progress through detailed charts and calculations, ensuring that I stay on course to meet this financial objective. I am confident that with careful planning and dedication to work and scholarship/grants, I can achieve my goal and build a solid foundation for my future.

During a family trip to downtown Chicago, my family spotted a homeless man. My dad pulled out some food that we had packed and some spare change that we have had. He told me to go give these items to the homeless man so I proceeded to do so. The joy and gratitude expressed by the homeless man left a lasting impression on me. Although I was just a child perhaps in third or fourth grade, this key experience created a deep passion within me for assisting those in need. As I grew up, I continued to embrace opportunities to help others. Despite being introverted and still am to this day. I offered my classmates help when I realized they were struggling with a material or class. The way I got past my introverted me not wanting to talk to new people is I told myself. I can either help and make sure they did good in class or stay quiet and not help them out knowing they did need that help. Knowing this made me want to help people out because I wanted them to do good on their next test. There is one particular kindness event that happened to me recently. On my routine walk to my car after class. I felt a sudden urge to take an unfamiliar route. I felt like something was telling me to go there so I did. This one decision led me to encounter a man. Maybe in his 20’s. He was lost and was also having issues communicating with people because he did not know any English at all. He asked me for help and I helped him out because I do speak English and I was not in a rush. I guided him to the appropriate place where he could ask questions and be guided to the place he needed to go to. This encounter touched me because it reminded me of my father's journey from Mexico to the U.S. and own challenges he faced when he came here. These experiences have reinforced my beliefs in the transformations and power kindness can have on people and the world. I’m convinced that every individual possesses the capacity of kindness and even small acts of kindness can have a significant impact on the world and the people around you. We can all collectively embrace kindness we can have the potential to effectuate positive and enchanted the lives of many. Today there are many reasons people hate each other and also talk back on people's backs. If we keep on doing this we will be led to a world that will be bad to be in. People are also being separated because of their own options and people not agreeing with them. This is very normalized in today's culture though. No one can seem to agree with anyone or even respect other people's options. I have also observed that many people don't take their time out of the way to be kind to others or help if they are in need of help.

Although most people don't know it, mathematics is the most important and impactful field of discovery. It has had a huge impact on the STEM community. These days, computers are doing all the mathematics, and we don't have to do as many calculations as we needed to a couple of years back. Deep down inside the tech and this field, all of it is greatly supported by mathematical calculations, especially calculus is the most powerful tool we have it also helps with communicating across different subjects in the STEM community. I see calculus as being a multitool it can help with many kinds of tasks and solve different kinds of problems. Mathematics has always been my favorite academic subject. Over time I have learned how it has a great role in the world and the new ways it's being used. Although it can be challenging at times for me and other people. Mathematics is the best academic subject to learn and become a master of. Mathematics is involved in every STEM and any subject you are pursuing. An additional career path that calculus has impacted is the engineering field. Engineering is a great way to prove how calculus can help in countless ways and additional how it applies to different fields. Engineering brings all the aspects of bring together scientific principles to be able to analyze, design, invent, code, build, and create to solve multiple kinds of problems. All these aspects use calculus to better predict an outcome or more accurately create Calculus especially has helped the human species to be able to evolve and create new inventions that have helped in extraordinary ways. The main field. It has impacted the field of healthcare the most significantly. Calculus has unlocked the power to make new machines that have saved countless lives. Calculus also helped with creating new medicine and testing it before releasing it to the public with a prescribed dosage. Calculus has also expanded our ability to understand mathematics and made it possible to expand our understanding of it. It made it possible to create new mathematics like analysis, complete analysis, and functional analysis. These also play a crucial own on their own. Although it's hard to see how calculus plays a crucial role in our daily life it's happening everywhere at once around you. From your car use it to calculate its speed so it can properly display the speed. Calculus happens without us knowing like a person riding a bike. If you wanted to measure the velocity to how much weight and pressure a person had to put into a peddle to get the bike to to move. If you master the art of calculus and understand it to its full extent. It might as well be seen as a superpower. because calculus is just as powerful.

My father emigrated to the United States with the primary goal of ensuring that his children would have better opportunities and a more promising future than he had. At just 18 years old he arrived in the U.S. alone. He came here with a few other immigrants. He came with a small amount of money that he converted to U.S. dollars. Over time he managed to save enough money to get housing for himself and eventually for my mother as well who would come to the U.S. as well once he had a home. My parents frequently recounted the difficulties of starting with nothing and the lack of resources they faced. When I was born they had no healthcare insurance and often avoided medical care. even in critical situations, this was all due to the financial constraints we have. As a first-generation college student, my family and I faced numerous challenges during my early childhood, I was primarily with my mother, while my dad the main source of income worked long hours just to provide for our family. Some days as a kid I would see him come home just to eat and then leave to find more work to make more money for us to afford the living expenses of four. My also mom cleans houses some days of the week she makes a small portion of the money but it helps us out. Seeing all the financial situations we have led me to question whether we could afford my college tuition. Despite my parent's assurances that we would manage to pay for it, I knew the journey would involve significant challenges and barriers. My family did not have a dedicated college savings account so we began with nothing. When I got my first job I started to adopt a disciplined approach to managing my finances. I developed a savings plan. I would save 50% of my paycheck for college savings, 30% for investments, and 20% for other expenses I had. This helped me build a foundation of financial responsibility and prepare me to graduate with as little debt as possible. As a kid, I was falling behind my academic in school because of the language barrier and learning and speaking two at the same time. I would always be pulled out of class because of it to bring me to a special class to help me with speech. I knew it was for my good and I was only there to get help but I was sometimes humiliated about it with people always asking me why I needed it. I did now feel comfortable enough to tell them I was behind my academic skills. And was overall less "smart" than they were. As a first-generation student has driven me to excel great amounts in my academic pursuits and seek out opportunities that would help me out and my goal in college is to graduate in computer science. I have been constantly researching resources to support my academic journey and future college goals. I started a routine of seeking out new scholarship opportunities every morning and applying to them as soon as possible. Being the odd kid out and being behind in my academic life for most of my life because of my language barrier and understanding English and mostly speaking it fluently influenced me to be one of the highest-performing students. I plan to keep pushing myself and keep on being on top of my class and school. Being a first-generation student sets its own set of. challenges including the lack of familial guidance from others on navigating college and how it works. I drew a lot of inspiration from my dad's journey coming to the U.S.. He demonstrated that anything is possible even though the path to your dream might take ages and a lot of dedicated hard work. It will all come to you if you are patient enough. I always remind myself that he was able to do it at a young age and has nearly nothing to his name. I can also overcome obstacles and achieve my goals in life. My experiences as a child of immigrants and a first-generation college student have shaped my perspective and driven me. The challenges my family and I have faced have strengthened us and bonded us together even more than imaginable. I am committed to continuing my journey with the same dedication and resilience that my dad has to this day. This gives me confidence that the effort will make my goals come to life and be able to achieve them.

During my junior year of high school, I felt uncertain about my future career path. Recognizing the importance of entering my senior with a clear direction of what I want to do after high school was very important. I consulted my counselor to plan my upcoming senior year classes. During this meeting, she recommended that I consider a program called Tech Campus. I told her I was still unsure what I wanted to do after high school and my goals. However, I showed an interest in technology and she suggested that the program included relevant classes in the tech field. One particular course that caught my attention was programming and coding. This reminded me of my childhood fascination with manipulating code in the inspect panel of Google Chrome. I decided to enroll in the programming class proved to be a pivotal decision. It became the highlight of my senior year, as I found immense satisfaction in coding and tracking various challenges. This experience was instrumental in shaping my career aspiration I discovered a genuine passion for coding and realized that I wanted to pursue it professionally. Additionally, this course facilitated an opportunity for a summer internship within the tech department of a local school district. During my internship which began earlier than usual due to my early graduation, I joined a team responsible for managing technology across three different schools. I particularly enjoyed working with the students who were enthusiastic and engaged. This experience deepened my understanding of how even a single application or program can significantly impact people's lives by simplifying tasks and improving efficiency looking ahead I aspire to develop software that can transform life at a huge scale. I'm still exploring the area of tech but I am eager to contribute to advocate in technology. I want to work in fields such as healthcare where innovative solutions have the potential to save lives. I am driven by the belief effect of positive change. Or I want to develop an app that helps other big corporations or a mass amount of people with annoying little tasks that can be fixed with a software program or app that I can develop. I am committed to being part of future technological breakthroughs and contributing to meaningful advancements.

I’m deeply committed to expanding my knowledge and exploring the various categories tech has to offer. My passion lies particularly in software development. I’m deeply motivated by a strong desire to assist others by solving problems and creating software that significantly enhances people’s lives. One goal I set for myself is to develop applications that streamline operations for businesses and organizations. This will improve efficiency and eliminate time-consuming tasks. Even seemingly minor tasks when accumulated can consume and take a substantial amount of time. For example, a task that takes just one hour a day over the course of a year could take 15 days in total. This is time that could be redirected towards more value-generating activities that increase the value of the company or other important tasks. During high school, I completed a coding class that included entry-level college coursework. My enthusiasm for the subject was shown in my performance in that class. As I achieved an A in the class this experience stands out as one of my most significant achievements. The skills and knowledge I gained from that class led to me landing an internship within a school district. During this internship, I acquired hands-on experience with computing components and their maintenance. I was involved in monitoring and managing the technology from across three schools. They gave me tasks such as troubleshooting and maintaining hardware and establishing and optimization of the district’s technological services. I realize that my passion for technology has been established before I even noticed. Despite not having access to technology at home during my early years my curiosity was sparked when I first encountered a computer at school. I would experiment by clicking various buttons and exploring different features. My initial encounter with code occurred when I discovered the Inspect tool in Google. I began to experiment and modify the text within the code. I saw how changing the code changed and affected the appearance of the website. This exploration ignited my fascination with technology and code a passion that continues to drive me to this day. Currently, I’m engaged in several projects to further enhance my skills and proficiency in multiple programming languages. I am developing a recipe app with a comprehensive user interface which has significantly improved my experience in Java, Swift, and user interface. Additionally, I’m building a personal website from scratch, which has exceeded my understanding of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. I also undertake small projects from YouTube tutorials such as creating a weather app that integrates external data to dynamically adjust the app's interface based on weather conditions. An additional project involves a GPS app that helps users locate restaurants based on their current locations and dining preferences. These projects contribute to my growing knowledge of how computers operate and reinforce my commitment and dancing in the field of technology and steps closer to getting my degree in computer science.

The first commitment I would like to make to myself is to do everything I can to graduate from college with a bachelor's degree in computer science. Debt-free or as little debt as possible. This is a very important goal for me. Reaching this goal means later in my life I will not have to worry about making the minimal payment on student loans. This will give me huge financial freedom and give me a bit more flexibility with my earnings instead of worrying about a payment I can use that money to put it in an emergency fund or invest it in the stock market. This will cover any accident that happens or secure even more financial freedom. My second commitment to myself is I would like to land a high-paying job. The main reason I would like to land a high-paying job is that I would like to help my parents out with any bills retiring and make sure my sister does not have the same financial issues as I do going into college I want to help her out paying for her college if she does decide to go. I extremely hope I can help that way she does not have to worry about the college tuition and can go ahead and study anything she desires to study. My parents immigrated here years back but ever since my dad has been the only one who works daily while my mom is a stay-at-home mom. She goes to clean houses every once in a while to make some cash. This leads to us almost living paycheck to paycheck. We have enough to save money in case of emergencies or gifts. Nevertheless, we are always using that money. Whether the house payment is coming and we need the money from there to somethings wrong with the car. We seem to never catch a break. This led to my dad not having a retirement account and he has never opened one. I want to make sure my parents don't have to work their whole life away. I want to retire them that way they can enjoy life. My parents have worked hard to provide for me, and I want to repay them. Lastly, I promise myself to enjoy life. I sometimes feel like I do not enjoy life the the full potential that I could have. I feel like school always gets in the way. If not school then it's work. I hope in the future I can enjoy life with my family as I want to. Without stress about an upcoming test, you could have been studying instead of being out making good memories with your friends or family. Even though it is college and more work is going to be needed I hope I slow myself down at times and stop worrying about if I can afford college and needing to work hard and study at the same time. Even though graduating debt-free might be hard scholarships like these are the reason there is a shine of hope. Getting any scholarship is a huge step to making sure I achieve the promises I want for my future self. It will get me those few steps closer we all need. Receiving any scholarship will help me reach and get that higher academic goal I set for myself and am actively pursuing. It will also motivate me to get that achievement and give me some more flex time from work and focus on my studies to make sure I graduate with the highest grades possible I’m able to achieve.

Like many first-generation students, my family and I face the challenge of financial strains. As my senior year of high school came to an end I started to question if we could afford college tuition and expensive. To overcome this challenge consistently apply for as many scholarships as possible. Additionally, I work during the summers and manage my earnings using the 50/30/20 rule. I allocate 50% of my paycheck to a high-yield savings account dedicated to college funds. I invest 30% into the S&P 500 stock market. This is set aside as emergency funds for any shortfall I might have in the future with college payments. The remaining 20% is used for personal life. I’m also concerned about balancing work, personal life, and academics once college begins this fall semester. Any financial aid or scholarships I receive will significantly lift the weight off of our shoulders. An additional challenge I face as a first-generation college student is navigating unfamiliar terrain without family guidance. I am the first person in my family to go to college so I am charting new territory on my own. A major hurdle I came across was applying for FAFSA. The application process was very complex for me and my family. Combined with the system changing and my parents not having access to an SSN this made it more particularly difficult. I started the application on its release date in January and only recently completed it. This unfortunately means I missed out on potential financial aid due to delays and complications during the application process. Lastly, a furthermore challenge I face is psychological strain. The pressure of being the first to go to college can be a lot. My parents always wanted high grades throughout my school year. This leads to a lot of stress at times when worrying about grades. Any time I saw my grade drop lower than 95% I would start to worry about it and find ways to raise the grade. I have always made sure to be on the top of my classes. This led to me taking dual credit on college-level courses. I also landed an internship at a school district with the tech department. Helping me get closer to my achievement of working in tech in the future and getting my bachelor's degree in computer science. In addition, I earned the Honor roll in high school and got into the National Technical Honors Society (NTHS). Being the child of immigrant parents has taught me that hard work and perseverance can overcome significant challenges. My dad came to the US at the age of 18. He came here only with a small amount of money and nothing else. We are now a family of 4 living in a house and having an income that can support us. This deeply inspired me and showed me that anything is possible and I can achieve my goal if I put my time and effort in. If he was able to achieve his goal of having a family in the U.S. and live a happy life with little to nothing to start. I also can achieve my goal with the support of my parents. I am truly proud of my parents and hope I am as hard-working as them.

How do I show entrepreneurial spirit? One way I show an entrepreneurial spirit is by showing leadership. I have always shown strong leadership with a team. I always make sure that people are assigned a job to do or finish and I always make sure they know what they are doing and understand what to do. I have been the leader in many school group projects where I know I have to take action and make sure everyone knows what to do. If I don't some people just stay there and are lost. I also know I have to make sure they know how to approach a problem and possibly come up with a solution. I have developed a habit of telling the person the problem they will be facing and asking them how they will approach it and solve it. If they do now know I will work with them and come up with a solution with them that way they are not lost and know what to do. Doing this has also given me the skills of being adaptable, great decision-making, giving people the passion and drive to get something done, and networking with people and making sure they have good communication with other people. How do I show a passion for innovation? Ever since I was young I have always been good at problem-solving and creative thinking on how I will fix the problem. Pre middle school my parents would always leave the door open in my room and I didn't like it. I taped up several ID reals together I noticed one did not have the power to pull the door by itself so I tapped multiple this led to me taping it at the frame of the door and the reel to the top of the door. This worked and It would shut the door by itself. I'm currently expanding on my innovation skills by learning how to make my apps. I will be using this skill to build apps that can impact my life and possibly others if I decide to publish the app. How do I show academic excellence? Over the years I have always tried the most in school and tried to find ways to get closer to my achievement of going to college and graduating with a bachelor's degree in computer science. I joined a class called Game Visualization and Programming in high school. In this class, we learned how to code in C++ and made programs and games that would run without a problem. This helped me build my skill in code while also doing double credit in class and getting me double credit for college. during my attendance in this class, I also volunteered whenever I could. Most of the volunteering was going in after school and teaching middle school students about the programs we had and giving them informative information about them. I would inform the middle school students about the class that I was taking and would talk about all of the opportunities that would arise if they took the class as well as everything they would do and learn if they did decide to take the class. I graduated out of high school with an A in the class. Including A's and some B's throughout my school year.

I always had a love for computers and technology. I always found it very fascinating how they worked I knew I wanted to work in Tech longer than I had realized. Looking back my love for tech started back when I was starting school and got access to a computer for the first time. I was very young and it being new it intreved me and got attention. I started to poke around in it then I found the inspect button on Google. To me, it all looked like random lettering at the time. With time I realized you can edit some of the text and how the website looks. Over time I learned there were careers you can do with this. This is how I knew I wanted to pursue a computer science degree. I find a computer science degree to be one of a kind very unique. Unlike most degrees, doctors stay as that dentist stay within that. With a computer science degree, you can branch out to almost anything you like cybercity, app development, web development, game programming, and making new tech for hospitals. and my main interest is software engineering. These branchouts made me more passionate about pursuing a degree in computer science. My goal is to graduate with a 4-year degree in computer science. While attending college take as many coding internships as possible to boost my chances of success after college. After college, I would like to be a software engineer. I would like to start small and climb the ladder of success slowly to a more major company. In my free time, I would like to code websites for people or personal projects. I would also like to create my app. I have another idea for an app that tracks school buses. There have been so many advances in tech but nothing has changed how we wait for our school bus. being a kid who has used a bus to go to school and come back home I have always had the same issue as many other kids probably have. I would sometimes leave the house too early and not finish breakfast because of it or sometimes would be outside in the cold or the rain. I would like to create an app that tracks the bus and sends a notification to the parent or child or both that they are at the next bus stop. Or they can set a time to send a notification to send if the bus is 3-8 minutes away from you. I am very passionate about a computer science degree and making my dream of creating my app that will shape and change how buses work for once. Being the first child born in the US will greatly help me and my family financially issue and will take some stress off of us the question that most college students have is "How am I going to pay for college, and can I afford it?"

My journey as a first-generation Hispanic has come with a lot of challenges. One major challenge is one every first gen has which is financial concerns. Towards the end of my high school years, I started to question if my family could afford for me to go to college. Although my parents assure me we will figure it out I know it will be a struggle. Another additional challenge I have had is my parents wanting high grades this has shaped a major part of me. Whenever I saw a grade go under a %95 I would start to panic and try finding ways to get it up. My role model in my life has to be my dad. He is always working and finding other ways to make money. You will nearly never see him sitting down he is always up working on something around the house or working at a family member's house. He works in construction which is hard. I hope to grow up like him and work as hard as him. He has been doing this job ever since he came to the US when he was 18 years old. He was able to come here with nothing and now we have our own house. This is why I know if he did it with nothing I can do it as well as well with the support of my family. One major hardship I had was the pandemic. My first year of High School was online. I found it very hard to concentrate in class and pay attention to the lecture. On top of that, I also had to help my mom out with my little sister since she does not know the ins and outs of technology I was constantly getting up and helping her out missing part of the lecture which led to me being confused at times and not knowing what I was supposed to be doing. One way I overcame this challenge was for once in my life I had to start asking questions I am not the type of person to raise my hand and ask for help. I had to be okay with unmuting and asking many questions during class which was way out of my comfort circle. Freshman year was the year that killed my GPA and had the lowest grades because I found it hard to speak up as an introverted person. I see education as a hidden power. The normal person does not know how powerful it really can be. But give education to the right person and that person will be able to achieve great things in life. I feel like I'm that type of person I know that knowing something can help. If it's not at the moment that one thing that you learned can make a great impact in the future when it's used correctly. Education and knowledge can impact a lot of lives. A smart person can invent a very creative product that can help a lot of people at once can change how life works. All you have to do is look around and you will see how knowledge changed life. The cars we drive were created by a person who was educated and they put that education to work and created something great that impacted the human race we use them every day to get around with ease. education is very powerful in the right hands of a person.

During my young years (10-13 years of age) when I first got access to a computer through school I always found it fascinating how they functioned. Over time I found the inspect tool on Google. This was one of the first times I have ever seen code. I found it amusing how you can change the lettering and make the whole website look completely different. Fast forward, to my high school years, I joined a program/class that taught you how to code in C++. you were given assignments that ranged from making a calculator that adds and subtracts to as advanced as creating a runnable game. I got to meet a lot of new people who were as passionate about computers as I was. I had a great time and loved the hands-on learning they had. The class also had volunteering work if you wanted to help out. Every time there was any chance to volunteer, I ensured I was one of the first to sign up. While taking the class I started to get very passionate about coding. I researched all of the languages there were to learn. During this time, I started to code my website using HTML/CSS. I’m still to this day working on the website. I am making the website stand out with animations that happen as the user scrolls up and down through the page. I hope to publish it and make it public for people to see it. My website is what inspired me. It's amazing how you can make something out of nothing using technology. I started with a blank page with nothing and created a website that I’m very passionate about. My goal as a future software engineer is to make an app to help students or parents who have kids who take the bus. I grew up taking the bus from and to school. During my years I had one huge complaint: I never really knew how close the bus was. I would like to create an app that sends out a notification to the parent or the student when they are at the next stop. The user would also have the option to set an additional time to notify them if the bus is 5 or any time away from them. This app will prevent kids from leaving their homes too early and having to stand outside in bad weather such as in the cold or the rain for too long. It will also help get those last couple of bites of breakfast that can make a difference at school. Once the app is fully developed another major goal is to make devices that will be on the bus. This device will be able to report any obstructions on the road if that obstruction blocks other bus routes to a bus stop it will notify them of that obstruction and give them a detour to take and avoid it. This will help prevent any delays. It will also have other features from crash detection in case of a crash it will notify the police and send longitude and latitude coordinates of the crash it will also use cell towers to ping the location. To be able to report other problems it will simply send a text to the closest police station with the location and the problem. I hope to achieve this dream this will greatly improve this major issue that has been a problem for too long now. Especially for how many advances there have been in tech, nothing has changed.